A gym was constructed in 1939 at 403 N. Nenant St. in Bucoda.
For years now, the historic building has been home to the Boo-Coda Spook-Tacular Haunted House during the South Thurston County community’s annual Halloween celebration every October.
However, after October ended, the gym would normally remain closed throughout the rest of the year, acting simply as storage for the haunted house decorations and costumes. With no active use outside of October, the gym fell into disrepair.
Last summer, Bucoda Mayor Callie Carpenter wanted to change that. She cleared out some space to allow local children to once again play basketball inside the gym along with using it for a lunch program.
On Wednesday, Dec. 10, Carpenter, along with other Bucoda Town Council representatives and Bucoda residents, gave a tour of the gym to Washington state Reps. Peter Abbarno, R-Chehalis, and Andrew Barkis, R-Olympia.
“I decided about a month before school was out, I wanted it to be open and at least take half of the haunted house stuff down so we could invite the kids who had nothing to do here during the summer to have an open gym,” Carpenter said. “Just to give them something to do to create community for kids, especially to meet other kids in town.”
While breaking down the haunted house, they discovered a lot of repairs were needed in order to make it safer for children inside.
Throughout multiple Bucoda Town Council meetings since the summer, additional discussion has been held about renovations needed in the gym, including installing a fire suppression system.
“On top of it, the gym just needed to be cleaned,” Carpenter said. “I want to thank BrightNight (LLC) and then Puget Sound Energy. They both donated $6,000, so a total of $12,000, to help with labor to take stuff down, and also, we’re going to hire a professional cleaning company to actually come out and clean the gym.”
This way, it’ll be ready for local kids again next summer.
While local sponsors have already donated to help start cleaning work inside the gym, Carpenter wanted Abbarno and Barkis to get a good look at the gym as she and the rest of those in attendance were hoping the representatives might be able to help obtain state funding to pay for renovations.
One renovation Carpenter hopes to see is reopening the stage inside the gym, which has been walled off. If this is carried out, the gym will also be able to be used as a theater.
“I know there’s the Tenino Young-at-Heart play group. I’d love to be able to get the stage up and running, get some production-type stuff. That way we could offer this to them to do productions,” Carpenter added.
In 2021, the Tenino Young-at-Heart Theatre — a community-run nonprofit theater group just a couple miles up the road north of Bucoda — purchased vacant land in Tenino with hopes to construct a brand new theater to perform in, as previously reported by The Chronicle. While the land was purchased, construction never began.
Carpenter also wants to offer the renovated gym up for rental out to other local athletic programs.
“I’ve heard rumors of possibly a church coming here, which would be cool,” she added.
Given there are showers underneath the bleachers inside the gym already, Carpenter also stated the gym could be used as emergency shelter during flood events.
“I really believe this is a huge asset to the community, not just as a haunted house for 13 days out of the year. It could be open, generating revenue, the entire year,” Carpenter said. “But we really have to take care of the building, preserve it, and then utilize it properly.”
Following the tour, both Abbarno and Barkis said they loved Carpenter’s proposal and thought the location would also be perfect for a local Boys & Girls Clubs of America chapter.
They invited Bucoda city officials to submit funding requests for state grants to help pay for gym renovations.
